Exhibits: anytime, any location, all ages

The newest exhibition of the Orval Hixon Gallery, New Compositions: The Dance Portraiture of Orval Hixon, is on display from June 11, 2011 through 2013 at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th St. The exhibit features a rich selection of Hixon’s portraits, including images of some of the best-known dancers of his time.

Established in 1874, the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department has for 138 years protected our citizens while keeping abreast of changes in criminology, transportation, technology, and society. This long and colorful history is examined in a new exhibit, Kansas City’s Finest.

In the pre-digital era before cell phones, satellites, and the Internet allowed travelers to instantly transmit their photos and comments to family and friends, Americans relied on “snail mail” and the picture postcard.

This exhibit gathers more than 200 examples of Kansas City postcards from the ‘30s and ‘40s. The cards – featuring images of landmarks, hotels, parks, and public buildings - have been drawn from the Mrs. Sam Ray Postcard Collection in the holdings of the Library’s Missouri Valley Special Collections.

Kansas City’s story doesn’t begin with fur traders and settlers. Rather it goes back millions of years to an era of rising and falling seas, thick green forests of towering ferns, and huge, now-extinct animals. That world, as revealed by the rocks beneath our feet, is explored in the exhibit KC|BC.

KC|BC complements Kansas City Millions of Years Ago – Reading the Rocks, a current show of digital illustrations and actual fossils at the Box Gallery in Suite 211 of the Commerce Bank Building, 1000 Walnut St.

Glen Hansen specializes in art inspired by the architecture of cities like Paris, Prague, and Venice. Now he turns his pencils and brushes on Kansas City for a show featuring over 30 drawings and a half-dozen paintings of local buildings and their architectural and decorative details.